Did you build that? And other peculiar political slogans

Remember when US President Barack Obama told entrepreneurs that they didn’t build their businesses? No, neither does anyone else... but Republicans do! The papers have coverage of the surreal appeal of cheerful propaganda. On the other hand, Obama’s balance sheet fails to convince The Economist. And Syria’s rebels get a surprisingly robust vote of support from Egyptian leader Mohamed Morsi in the most unlikely of places: Iran.

US President Barack Obama said a few weeks ago that it’s partly thanks to roads, bridges and communications that Americans can build their companies without a lot of obstruction.

Republicans somehow took his phrase, "You didn’t build that” infrastructure, to refer to businesses, and have lambested him for such imagined convictions ever since. The Huffington Post looks at how Clint Eastwood, one of the speakers at the convention, certainly did not "build that" without government help. His highly successful fims were made with the aid of tax credits at home and abroad.

The paper also wonders at the Republicans’ aversion to any mention of policy at the circus-like conventions. The answer, says The Times, lies in the fact that the Republican health care plan is deeply unpopular in swing states.

Obama is not out of the woods though: The Economist says he took office when a lot was wrong with the country, but he has not done enough to convince the paper he’s the right man for the White House.

The Christian Science Monitor reports on the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, where Egyptian leader Mohamed Morsi made a surprising declaration. Hosted by the Syrian regime's staunch ally, Iran, he said: "the bloodshed won't stop unless we intervene."